View full sizeThe Associated PressQuarterback Conner Kavanaugh, who rallied Portland State past Idaho State Saturday, has developed an identity on campus, something that was hard to do when the Vikings were losing.

On the day several years ago that Jerry Glanville interviewed for the job of head football coach at Portland State, I took him for a drive downtown. I pointed out the federal courthouse, after a half-second, Glanville blurted: "Have you ever applied to be in the CIA?"

I said, "No, why?"

Glanville said that it's perfectly easy to apply to be in the CIA. "They even have a website," he said. "You just go online, and you can fill out the questionnaire, and then, you're applied to be in the CIA. Who wouldn't apply for something like that? If I weren't a football coach, I'd be in the CIA, that's for sure."

"You applied?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said, looking out the window. "Filled out the questions, and at the end, the computer said I was a bad ass."

Glanville wore black, and talked about being tough, and demanded accountability from his players. But something ultimately always felt lost in translation, and after Glanville's firing, we wondered if anyone could win at PSU. Rhetoric aside, nothing materialized under Glanville.

But, Nigel Burton has a real opportunity this Saturday.

The Vikings are 3-1 this season, and for all the talk about being relevant, and tough, and accountable, PSU's football team has been unusually quiet except for the results. They've been great on offense, and exciting on defense. Their only loss was a blowout, pay-day game against TCU, and so it's beginning to feel cool again to root for the Vikings.

The marketing budget on the Park Blocks is paltry. The program history is spotty. Even when Pokey Allen made it fun years ago, making people notice his program, insiders will tell you that was "Pokey being Pokey."

They talk about it as though it can never be again.

But it can. Not with Allen dropping meteors in people's yards, or with Glanville playing Johnny Cash songs, but with a very decent football team taking care of business on the field. Which is why the Vikings very much want you to know they're playing Saturday at home against Montana State.

Connor Kavanaugh, the Vikings star quarterback, said this week that his professors are beginning to ask him about football for the first time. That's a good thing. Because polling the psyche of professors is as scientific as it gets in gauging the campus temperature, and for years, the teachers have handed papers back to starting quarterbacks on campus without a word about football.

"You're the quarterback, right?" ends up an encouraging thing.

Portland State is calling for a "Green Out" at Jeld-Wen Field on Saturday. They've ramped up the grassroots marketing, a bit. But mostly, we've all realized post-Glanville, that the football will do the loudest talking.

Teams from the state of Montana have won at least a share of the Big Sky Conference championship in 13 consecutive seasons. Montana State is the defending co-champion, and has defeated Portland State in eight of the last nine meetings.

Basically, Burton's moment of truth is here.

Has Portland State truly turned the corner? Are the Vikings worth blowing off, say, Oregon State-Arizona to see on Saturday? Is the football a bigger attraction than the renovated stadium now?

Those questions won't be answered with a voice, but rather by a team statement. Because beating Northern Arizona and Idaho State is one thing, and seizing control of first place in a conference that has been monopolized by the Montana schools is quite another.

Ask your co-worker or spouse or kid today how many times Portland State has won a Big Sky Conference championship in football? See what they say. See how they react.

Answer: Zero.

Ask Burton if his program is ready to make that leap and he doesn't crow about being a "bad ass" and tip his black cowboy hat. He just tells you that he thinks they're doing the right things every day, and getting better, and then, he tells you he has to go.

He's always heading out to some local high school football game.

Burton said he thinks there are potentially as many as 40 future Division I football players currently playing at Oregon high schools. He doesn't bank on California kids. He doesn't have to work with Texas-based scouts. He just shows up at local high school games and probably walks right past people without anyone realizing he's around.

When PSU center Adam Kleffner snaps the ball to Kavanaugh, who tosses to running back Cory McCaffrey, that goes Jesuit High to Lincoln High to Sisters High.

That's music in this state.

Burton ends up the last hope at PSU. When he was hired, I worried the Vikings had it wrong. That this could spell the end of the football there. Now, I'm watching, and hoping I'm the one who was wrong.